07 January 2010

There is a disturbing update to Washington DC's new marriage equality legislation. Stand 4 Marriage DC Coalition, led by anti-gay crusader Bishop Harry Jackson, has asked the D.C. Superior Court to order the Board of Elections and Ethics to place a marriage initiative on the ballot for a voter referendum. (The Board has denied several requests.) Thirty-nine conservative anti-gay congressional Republicans, including two senators, have filed an amicus brief to co-sign Jackson's gay-bashing.

In the filing, U.S. senators James Inhofe (OK) and Roger Wicker (MS) and 37 House Republicans align with Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church, in asking the court to reverse a D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics decision prohibiting the same-sex marriage question to be put before voters. "Under the United States Constitution, they serve as members of the ultimate legislative authority for the District of Columbia and the very body which delegated to the District its limited legislative power under home rule," the filing states. "As members of the District's ultimate legislative body, amici are concerned about the extent of the District's delegated legislative authority, the preservation of Congress's constitutional authority, and the interpretation of home rule." The filing comes as Jackson and his attorneys appeared in Superior Court today for a hearing on whether a referendum should be held. In two separate rulings since June, the elections board has stated that a public vote on same-sex marriage would be discriminatory against gay men and lesbians. Jackson is vowing an exhaustive court fight to challenge those decisions.

In addition to Inhofe, Wicker, House Minority Leader John Boehner (OH) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA), via AMERICAblog, the brief was signed by the following:

After Lott claimed that America would have avoided "all these problems" if it had put a segregationist in the White House, Inhofe quickly came to Lott’s defense: "In an effort to honor the life and service of Strom Thurmond, Senator Lott made some comments that he probably wishes he had phrased differently," Inhofe said. "I do not believe Senator Lott meant to be malicious or racist with the comments he made. I believe he was merely honoring a great American on his 100th birthday. "